"I want to help you, Keith." Shiro said. Keith glared at him. "But in order for me to help you, I need to know why you got kicked out of your last foster home. The Garrison needs to know if they're going to let you go there."

"Don't pretend like you care about me." Keith grumbled, pulling on the strings of his worn red hoodie. "I know you don't really care. You're going to give up on me as soon as I mess up, just like everyone else does."

Shiro exhaled softly. He put his hand on Keith's shoulder. "I do care about you, Keith. And I promise I won't give up on you."

Keith looked up at Shiro. "For real?"

"Of course. But even more importantly, you can't give up on yourself."

Keith took a deep breath. "If I tell you why they didn't want me, you won't like me anymore. I'd rather not tell you."

"Would you be willing to write it down? Or tell Adam?" Shiro asked.

Keith shook his head. He had heard about Adam before, but he didn't know anything about him. "You're the first person to like me. I can't tell you or you'll hate me."

"I won't ever hate you, Keith. But if you want me to help you, I need to know. Even if it's something really bad, I won't hate you."

Keith started crying. Shiro was alarmed. He had never seen Keith cry before.

"Woah! Um, it's okay." Shiro lifted Keith's face up and smiled warmly at him. "No need to cry. I'm here for you."

"I'm sorry, Shiro. I- my secret is that I like boys. I'm so sorry, I know it's wrong, and I'm trying to stop, but I- I-" Keith's crying turned to straight up sobbing.

That was all it was? Shiro wrapped Keith in his arms. Keith sobbed into his shirt. "Ssshhh. It's okay. I still like you, Keith."

"Really?"

"Of course I do. And you're not a bad person for liking boys."

"I'm not?"

"Not at all. Can I tell you something? I like boys, too."

Keith looked up at him. "You do?"

"Yeah, I do. I have a boyfriend, Adam. We love each other."

Keith smiled, even though his face still had tears on it. "So you like boys, too? But you're so nice. And strong and cool."

Shiro laughed. "Thanks. Being gay doesn't mean you can't be nice or strong or cool. Although, honestly, Adam is more nice and cool than me."

"Can.... I meet him? If that's okay."

Shiro thought about this for a moment. "Sure." He said. "Let me call him and see if you can come over for dinner tonight."

"Adam," Shiro said later that night, "This is Keith."

Keith was nervously standing next to Shiro in the doorway. Adam turned around. "Hey, Keith! I'm Adam, Takashi's fiancé. I'm so excited to meet you. Takashi talks about you all the time."

Keith looked up at Shiro and laughed. "Your name is Takashi?"

Shiro laughed, too. He ruffled Keith's hair. "Sure is, Akira."

"Hey! How do you know that?" Keith demanded, fixing his hair.

Shiro shrugged. Then he turned back to Adam. "So, what's for dinner tonight?"

"I made lasagna and garlic bread. Keith, do you like garlic bread?"

"Yes, sir." Keith said.

Adam looked uncomfortable. "Just call me Adam, please."

"Okay, Adam."

A few minutes later, they were all sitting around their kitchen table, eating lasagna and laughing about something that had happened to Adam earlier that day.

"And then Commander Iverson looks at me and goes, 'Nice hair, W.' And I'm like, 'Gee, thanks.' And now I'm scared of squirrels, because you never know what they're capable of with a tube of hair gel and their little rodent paws."

"You guys are so nice and funny," Keith laughed.

"Thanks, Keith!" Adam said. "Did anything funny happen to you today?"

"Um," Keith said, mentally going over his day, "One of the kids in the group home, Billy, drew a bunch of butts on the wall. It was kinda funny, I guess, until someone noticed and we all got in trouble."

"I'm sorry, Keith. Sounds like you had a rough day."

Keith shrugged. "It's okay. I had fun with Shiro, when we rode hoverbikes. Shiro jumped off a cliff. It was so cool!"

Adam's head snapped toward his boyfriend. "You did what?"

Shiro looked uncomfortable. "I.... jumped off a cliff with my hoverbike. But look, I was safe about it, like I always am. I'm totally fine."

Keith got nervous about how Adam was going to react. Was he going to yell at Shiro? Was he going to yell at Keith? Was he going to hit one of them? Was he going to throw something? Why didn't Shiro look scared? Adam seemed nice, but Keith knew from experience that some of the nicest looking adults were mean.

To Keith's surprise and relief, Adam didn't do any of those things. He just shook his head and sighed. He smiled fondly at Shiro. "Darling, if you keep being reckless, you're going to lose a limb one day."

Keith was shocked when that was the end of it, and everyone happily went back to their lasagna. In past foster homes, fights had been large and frequent, scary ordeals. Keith was tough, but that kind of environment wears down even the toughest of kids.

Shiro locked their apartment's door. He had just gotten back from dropping Keith back at the group home. He felt Adam's arms wrap around him in a hug.

"We're adopting him, right?" Adam asked.

He felt Shiro tense beneath him. Shiro pulled away from the hug and looked at Adam.

"Keith?" Shiro asked.

"Uh, yeah. Duh. Who else?"

"You want to adopt Keith?"

"Yes. I just said that."

"Oh! Um, yeah! Sure! I, um, I'd love to adopt Keith. But shouldn't we talk more about this?"

Adam shrugged. "I mean, yes, we should. But what else really is there to talk about? We both love Keith. We have a guest room that can be his room. Our house is pretty safe. We've both been wanting a kid for a while. I don't see any downsides."

Shiro beamed. He hugged Adam tightly. "I love you, Adam."

"I love you, too, Takashi. You're going to be a great father."

"It's kinda weird, though." Shiro said, pulling away from the hug. "We're going to have a son, but we're not married yet."

Adam smiled at him. He lifted up his left hand and pointed to where a wedding ring would go. "Yeah. You should get on that proposal, Takashi."

Shiro took his soon-to-be fiancé's hand. "I'll get right on that."

That night, Keith lay awake in his bed in the group home, thinking about Shiro and Adam and squirrels and hair gel. He thinks about how great it would be to be a part of such a happy, healthy family. He eventually fell asleep, unaware of Adam and Shiro's decision.